Open to adults of all ages, SI’s Contemporary Art Topics (CAT) program is a free, discussion-based course designed to investigate current themes and issues being explored by living artists today. Thematically based and artist-led, these two-hour synchronous virtual classes introduce concepts and ideas in contemporary art through lectures, guest artist talks, class discussions, “slow looking” at art, and individual and group activities, as well as opportunities to share student artwork.

CAT takes place three times a year: winter/spring, summer, and fall.

In addition to weekly Zoom sessions, each season of classes will include one or two trips in-person in NYC for local students.

Past program topics include: the four elements in contemporary art, contemporary artists creating urban space interventions, regenerative life cycles in artmaking, materials and processes, use of color in contemporary art practice, history of color materiality and symbolism, wandering as art, craft and folk arts, ritual in art, the intersection of art and ecology, art as food/food as art, public and socially engaged art, and preservation and artistic legacy.

Course Theme

What is the difference between an object, a thing, a sculpture, or a specimen? What purpose do these definitions serve, and how might we play with their meaning? What goes into the making of an object, and how does that impact our relationship to it?

The theme for this season of SI’s Contemporary Art Topics is centered on how we relate to objects, how objects relate to each other, how objects manifest, and how they can be interpreted based on their materiality and their placement in different environments. Through art making and close looking, we will experiment by observing objects in various “situations” (a term coined by the Mono-ha art movement), isolating them to study their unique qualities, and exploring our individual and collective associations connected to them. We will focus mainly on objects from nature, everyday objects, and raw materials.

We will look at a number of artists, including: Kishio Suga, Rachel Whiteread, David Hammons, Roni Horn, Larry Bell, Vija Celmins, Martin Wong, and Tehching Tseih, among others. This course aims to center BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and multigenerational artists from various backgrounds and mediums.

Requirements

Open to students ages 18 and upward.

This course is free to attend, though we ask students to be able to commit to a majority of Zoom sessions for a given season.

Details and Registration

Classes will meet on Thursdays between March 12 and May 7, 2026 for 8 virtual sessions, plus 2 in-person trips in NYC on select Saturdays for local students for a total of 10 classes.

Online sessions meet from 10:00am - 12:00pm EST.

This class is facilitated by Lead Educator, Julia Norton.

For questions, please email education@swissinstitute.net.

Access Statement

In this program we will take occasional trips around the city and may be seated or standing for a significant amount of time. Transportation to non-Swiss Institute trip sites is offered via car from and back to SI.

All Zoom meetings are enabled with automated captioning and transcription options.